470 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



My father's process was to have wood cut four 

 leet long, and when partly dried, to place two 

 pieces of this wood at tour leel apart, and a piece 

 in the middle, then he placed a piece across each 

 end and side, naaking an open pen of lour or five 

 inches deep. This was ihen filled vviih the rock 

 broken inio Iragaients from lour to six inches dia- 

 meter, another layer of wood as above, then rock 

 again, till he got the pile five or six leet high ; fire 

 was then placed underneath the pile, and when 

 the wood was consumed the rock, was found sul- 

 ficienlly burned to decompose. In the improved 

 process ol' indigo making in the East Indies and 

 South America, J underi^iand they do not. use lime. 

 I hope the East Indians may not supplant us as 

 eflectually in raisiiig cotion as they did in indigo. 

 Some twenty years ago, when I had more 

 youth and energy than I now have, [ had a boat 

 built wiih a view lo bring up linie from the banks 

 below. It so hap[iened that my crop the year I got 

 my boat ready was a light one. The fiist down 

 load was taken, and on ihe boat's return I ordered 

 my people to bring up a load ot limestone. Be- 

 fore they returntd as high as the iimesione banks 

 the river was up, and my people Ibund it difficult 

 to get at the rock, and got only the surtacc or up- 

 per part of the rock, which Was interior to that 

 which is Ibund deeper. This load 1 had hauled 

 to my plantaiioi^ burned in my lather s plan as 

 above described, and Ibund the rock sufficiently 

 burned to decompose. The lime I ordered to be 

 sprinkled in the drill where I intended to plant 

 cotton, and drilled thick enough to see it some 

 distance, but how much to the acre 1 cannot say. 

 1 thought 1 could perceive the good etiecis lor tlie 

 first and second years; but the spot where the 

 rock was burned was very visible lor many years. 

 Whether this effect was produced bylhe increased 

 quantity oC the Cragments ol' the rock and lime, 

 and the ashes from ihe wood used in burning the 

 rock, or liom the combined causes, I cannot say. 

 Belbre the next sca.-cn, my boat met with some 

 accident, and thus ended my visions ol enriching 

 my plantation Irom lime. It is not necessary for 

 me to say to the editor of ihe Farmer's G^izette, 

 that lime, from the earliest agricultural records has 

 been Ibund a ieriilizeror promoter ol vegetation. 

 The modus operandi ol lime, gypsum and ashes is 

 still I believe a debateable question. 1 have used 

 all these in the same way and quantity by rubbing 

 my cotton seed and seed corn belore planting, 

 with about equal success. In dry years the etfect 

 wiih me was visible in the color and increassed or 

 hastened growth of the plant. In wet years I 

 could not perceive the eli'ects. The result of my 

 hmited reading and experience is that lime, gyp- 

 sum, ashes and salt act as solvents of the atmo- 

 sphere. I preler wood ashes to either lime, gyp- 

 sum or salt. Whether a more general, saler, 

 and cheaper use of steam will ever enable boat 

 owners to brinji up lime and deliver it cheap 

 enough for the Pee Dee farmers to use extensively, 

 is a question for another generation or generations 

 to decide. All I can say is, that inexhaustitile beds 

 of limestone exist on the banks of the Pee Dee, 

 Black River, Sanlee and Savannah, 



A PlSli DeK Pr.AXTER. 



KXPERIMENTS TO SHOW THE PROPER STATE 

 OF WHEAT FOR REAPING. 



[At page 35, vol. ii., of the Farmers' Register, 

 we, presented at length our views and personal 

 experience in regard to the advantage of reaping 

 wheat before it is fully ripe. Our opinion has 

 been settled 01.1 this still disputed point since 1821, 

 and our |;ractice made conformable to the opinion. 

 Within that time, a very general change has 

 taken place, by somewhat advancing the time of 

 reaping. But still, there are but few farmers who 

 will venture to reap as soon as the time we advo- 

 cated, that IS, when the grain is quite soft, or in 

 the " douflh state," or but just passed the previous 

 " milky state ; ' and much loss is yet sustained by 

 what remains of the old prejudice in favor of the 

 wheat being "dead ripe." In the following arti- 

 cle, from the last number of the British Quarterly 

 Journal of Agriculture, (lor June, 1841,) the 

 writer has arrived at the same deductions that we 

 did, by a dilTerent and more accurate course of ex- 

 periment and calculation ; and perhaps this difier- 

 ent mode ol treating the subject may aid the con- 

 viction ol those yet in doubt. In this hope, we 

 venture to present an article, of which the length 

 and scientific lbr.m, we fear, may be repulsive to 

 most readers, as the general taste of readers seems 

 to be lor mere results, rejecting all the steps of 

 reasoning or evidence by which the results were 

 reached, and by which the truth or Jaisehood of 

 the coiM.'lusions might be judged. 



What the writer calls the " raw" state of wheat, 

 agrees with what we called the " dough" state, 

 and recommended as the best lor reaping. The 

 interval of 14 days between that and the ripe 

 slate, which he (bund in the cool autumn climate of 

 Britain, would not be more than half as long, and 

 usually still less, in our hot and dry summer. — 

 Ed. F. R.] 



In lelerring to his " 6ooA's," during the commu- 

 t:ition of the tithes in this parish, a very near 

 connexion of mine (vvhose aurirultiiral experienre 

 ex'endsover a period of more than half a centurj', 

 and who. when in the active management of land, 

 w.iii locally noied lor producing good samples of 

 wheat) showed me a list of all the corn lie had 

 produced and sold. Observing that the prices he 

 had obtained for wheat were nearly always above 

 those of the neiirhhoring markets at the same 

 time, he inlbrmed me that he was in the habit of 

 commencing harvest a week or ten days belbre 

 the generality of farmers, it beincr his practice 

 to reap his wheat before it became quite ripe. 



Thinking that custom must be the best guide 

 on this point, and that age often looks upon the 

 past, as youth upon the future, through a glass 

 that invests objects and thoughts with a parti d 

 hue, this explanation did not make much impres- 

 sion upon me, till some months after (how many 

 I cannot exactly say,) when 1 observed, from a 



